The EWA Reporting Fellowship provides financial awards to education journalists to undertake ambitious reporting and writing projects. The EWA Reporting Fellows are selected by EWA through a competitive application process. Each fellow receives a financial award to support an education reporting project, as well as other assistance.
The EWA Reporting Fellowship provides financial awards to education journalists to undertake ambitious reporting and writing projects. The EWA Reporting Fellows are selected by EWA through a competitive application process. Each fellow receives a financial award to support an education reporting project, as well as other assistance.
Could Free College Classes In High School Put More Kansas Students On Track To Degrees?
Hefty college debt won’t saddle Bryan Medina. He’s on a fast track to an energy career that he hopes will pave the road to family dreams: Buying his own cattle and going in on the purchase of 300 acres of land with his dad. “We could grow and eventually own our own feedyard,” said Medina, who finished high school last May in the small southwest Kansas town of Sublette. “If things go great, if we put all the work into it, we’ll definitely get there.”
Behind Bars and in College
Postsecondary education in Illinois’ prison system
(EWA Radio: Episode 200)
If you’re an inmate in Illinois, what educational programs are available to help you get your life back on track? That’s the question public radio reporter Lee Gaines set out to answer in an ongoing series. As part of an EWA Reporting Fellowship, Gaines looks at how severe budget cuts in Illinois, plus changes to eligibility for federal Pell Grant dollars, have reduced the number of prisoners earning postsecondary credentials and degrees.
Plotting The Right Path To A Job Matters More Than Ever In Today’s ‘College Economy
College remains the single most reliable path to a lifetime of higher earnings. But burgeoning student debt and a job landscape transformed by computers and automation ratchet up the pressure on students to choose their majors wisely.
College Costs More Than Ever, But Can You Afford To Skip It? Consider These 5 Things
Life is expensive. Rent, health care, raising a family, saving for retirement — it adds up. But so does college debt. In fact, the cost of college shot up many times faster than typical U.S. earnings in recent decades. So, what to do after high school? Here’s what you need to know.
Pell Grants for Prisoners Could Save Illinois Millions
Illinois could save millions of dollars on incarceration costs if the federal ban on Pell Grants for inmates was lifted, according to a new report from the Vera Institute of Justice. Pell Grants are awarded to low-income undergraduate students to help them pay for college. The report, called “Investing in Futures: Fiscal Benefits of Postsecondary Education in Prison,” cites numerous economic and other benefits to states across the country if prisoners were able to apply for and receive federal Pell Grants.
Only Two Percent Of Teachers Are Black Men, Yet Research Confirms They Matter
A growing body of recent research asserts that a black man in the classroom is both rare and critically needed in American public schools.
Since 2014, ethnic and racial minorities make up more than half of the student population in U.S. public schools, yet about 80 percent of teachers are white and 77 percent of them are female. People of color make up about 20 percent of teachers; a mere 2 percent are black men.
North Carolina’s Teacher Diversity Gap
In North Carolina, where minority students make up 52 percent of the traditional public school body, 80 percent of teachers are white. For students of color, especially black and Hispanic boys, that means they may seldom – or never – have a teacher who looks like them during their kindergarten through 12th grade years.
FAQs About the 2019 EWA Reporting Fellowships
Please note: The deadline for this round of the fellowship was Feb. 15, 2019.
What is the EWA Reporting Fellowship?
The EWA Reporting Fellowship provides financial awards to education journalists to undertake special reporting and writing projects.
How many fellowships will be awarded?
EWA expects to award approximately 7 fellowships in this round.
How much money comes with the fellowship?
EWA will provide awards of up to $8,000 apiece to winning proposals.
Want an EWA Reporting Fellowship? Here’s What You Need to Know.
Fellows eligible for up to $8,000 plus other project support
EWA is looking for its next class of Reporting Fellows — education journalists who receive up to $8,000 apiece to undertake in-depth projects on a wide range of topics.
This is your opportunity to get the inside track on crafting a winning application. Questions addressed include: What are the hallmarks of successful proposals? How can the money be used? What reporting topics are priorities this time? How have past fellows used their funds to produce innovative and compelling work?
Why Illinois Won’t ‘Ban The Box’ On College Applications
Next year, the Common Application used by hundreds of colleges and universities will stop asking potential students about their criminal histories. Despite legislative efforts in Illinois, most campuses in the state continue to ask the question. Nationwide, roughly two-thirds of colleges and universities that completed a 2009 survey reported asking prospective students about their criminal histories.
District Sends Teachers on Home Visits to Help Get More Students to College
West Virginia unveiled a campaign this year for 60 percent of adults ages 25 to 64 to have earned a degree or certificate by 2030. But in this county of fewer than 19,000 residents, just 38 percent of recent high school graduates sought more education, according to the latest available data from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. That’s well below the statewide rate of 55 percent. And in 2016 just 8 percent of McDowell County residents of working age held an associate degree or higher, compared to 31 percent statewide.
Hitting the ‘60 Percent Goal’ Won’t Just Take Work. It Requires a Transformation.
In order to meet its top educational goal, Idaho will need to reinvent itself. And rethink success.
State leaders want more high school graduates to continue their education — to prepare young adults for a changing labor market, and to help Idaho compete economically. This ambitious aim runs headway into hard realities.
How to Fund Your Dream Reporting Project
Seven organizations will provide financial and editorial support to education journalists.
Here’s some rare good financial news for education journalists: If you have an idea for an ambitious education-related story – and a realistic plan for executing it – a growing number of organizations will provide grants or other resources to support your reporting.
Representatives from several of the organizations, and some fellowship winners, shared tips and strategies for getting help to make reporting dreams a reality at EWA’s 2018 National Seminar, held on the campus of the University of Southern California.
EWA Announces 10 New Reporting Fellows
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce its sixth class of EWA Reporting Fellows as part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to support enterprising journalism projects on education.
“From investigative reporting to deep data dives to long-form narratives, our new fellows reflect a diverse range of topics and approaches,” said Caroline Hendrie, EWA’s executive director. “We are delighted to be able to support such ambitious and timely education journalism.”
EWA Invites Journalists to Apply for Fellowships on K-12, Higher Ed Topics
Awards of up to $8,000 will support ambitious reporting and writing
*The deadline for this round of the EWA Reporting Fellowship was Aug. 31, 2018. The application cycle is now closed.
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce a call for proposals for its next class of EWA Reporting Fellows. The fellowships provide financial awards to journalists to undertake ambitious reporting and writing projects. This will be the sixth class of EWA Reporting Fellows.
FAQs About the 2018 EWA Reporting Fellowships:
K-12 and Higher Ed
Applications Due August 31, 2018
What is the EWA Reporting Fellowship?
The EWA Reporting Fellowship provides financial awards to education journalists to undertake special reporting and writing projects.
How many fellowships will be awarded?
EWA expects to award approximately 10 fellowships in this round of the program.
How much money comes with the fellowship?
EWA will provide awards of up to $8,000 a piece to winning proposals.
EWA Announces New Education Reporting Fellows
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce its fifth class of EWA Reporting Fellows as part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to support enterprising journalism projects on education.
“We’re delighted to support the in-depth reporting projects proposed by the newest fellows,” said Caroline Hendrie, EWA’s executive director. “Their work will help shed light on the myriad challenges and opportunities facing students as they move from classrooms to careers.”
Trauma Lingers for Harvey Survivors Returning to School in Port Arthur
The mid-June clouds stark white and heavy with impending rain, Darby Dugay listened for the splatter of falling drops, noting that the foul weather might delay her basketball practice.
Nearly a year after Hurricane Harvey submerged coastal Port Arthur, the rain still brings the 17-year-old’s heart rate up, especially when water overflows the long-neglected drainage ditches lining the neighborhood’s sidewalks.
One School’s Approach to Bad Behavior and Trauma
In education, initiatives tend to roll down from above. A district buys a new curriculum, or gets funding for a new program, and principals receive their marching orders, which they in turn hand down to teachers below.
FAQs About the 2018 EWA Reporting Fellowship: Postsecondary Pathways
Applications Due April 30, 2018
What is the EWA Reporting Fellowship?
The EWA Reporting Fellowship provides financial awards to education journalists to undertake special reporting and writing projects.
How many fellowships will be awarded?
EWA expects to award approximately six to 10 fellowships in this round of the program.
How much money comes with the fellowship?
EWA will provide awards of up to $8,000 a piece to winning proposals.
This Country Spends Billions On Private Schools – And Has A Terrible Learning Gap Between Poor And Wealthy
School choice in France offers lessons for the U.S.
In theory, vouchers and other private school choice programs open up the same menu of educational opportunities to all, according to (Education Secretary Betsy) DeVos and other school choice supporters. Parents are freed from financial constraints and can pick a school in which their child will thrive, leading to improved academic outcomes for all children.
In Canada’s Public Schools, Immigrant Students Are Thriving
When 13-year-old André Cordeiro moved from rural Portugal to Toronto, the only English words he knew were, “hi,” “bye,” and “hot dog.” Four years later, he speaks English “way better” and credits the English-learner class he attends every morning at Islington Junior Middle School.
Betsy Devos’s School Choice Ideas Are a Reality in Sweden, Where Student Performance Has Suffered
It was one of many tense moments at Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ confirmation hearing this year. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., repeatedly asked DeVos if she believed that all schools that receive public money, including private schools, should meet the same accountability standards. DeVos would not answer yes or no; she eventually began repeating, “I support accountability.”
What Would Actually Happen If We Gave All Parents The Chance To Pick Their Children’s Schools?
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos believes the key to improving schools in the United States is simple: Let parents choose where to send their children. Many school choice advocates cheered DeVos’ appointment, hoping it would unleash new funding and federal support for more charter schools, private school vouchers and other “choice” options, such as virtual schools and online programs.
EWA Announces New Education Reporting Fellows
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce its fourth class of EWA Reporting Fellows as part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to support enterprising journalism projects on education.
“We are delighted to provide additional EWA members with this unique opportunity to dig deeper into the education beat,” said Caroline Hendrie, EWA’s executive director. “These new projects will make important contributions to the public’s understanding of education and further fortify the nation’s education journalism community.”
Test Drive: New Hampshire Teachers Build New Ways to Measure Deeper Learning
Just outside Concord High School, a delivery truck has spilled its chemical supplies. The students’ mission: Investigate the properties of the spill and develop a detailed plan to clean it up safely.
Teenagers wearing safety goggles squat down, sucking up samples of the clear liquid with pipettes. The simulated spill has been “contained” in a fish tank. But the students play along, first by developing some “testable questions” with their partners: How acidic is it? How does it compare with the properties of each substance on the truck?
Reinventing High School
See how one New Hampshire school is retooling education.
Two-dozen high school students are gathered around a large work table as manufacturing teacher Dan Cassidy holds out boxes of metal bars and gears. The students choose among the parts to build model bicycles. “What else are we going to use today? Let me hear some vocab here,” he says. When a student shouts out “chains,” he nudges them until they recall another term for it: “linkage.”
Inside Silicon Valley’s Big-Money Push to Remake American Education
On a chilly winter morning in a tiny pocket of Silicon Valley known as North Fair Oaks, Everest Public High School is buzzing with energy. Out front, a tall, skinny teen jumps out of a black Porsche SUV; moments later, three young women in matching black hoodies stream out of the front seat of a Toyota pickup that’s filled with trowels, buckets, and a ladder.
The Evolving Philadelphia High School
With the sound of drills and nail guns in the background, two ninth-grade boys tried to solve a math problem.
“How many 2-by-4, 8-foot planks am I going to have to buy when I go to Home Depot this afternoon?,” asked Jared Lauterbach, the students’ teacher, “and how many 6-foot planks?”
Building Houston’s Super School
Follow Furr High School as they reimagine the high school experience, from hiring inventive teachers to preparing graduates for the rest of their lives.
Without Its Storied Principal, What’s the Future of Furr High?
This was supposed to be a banner year for Furr High School. It moved into a brand new building and was using a ten million dollar grant to reinvent high school. Even though Hurricane Harvey delayed the school year by two weeks, things seemed to be back to normal.
Longtime principal Bertie Simmons met with a mom who was trying to get her daughter into Furr.
Science Learning Academy Takes Its Learning Approach to the Masses
In a corner of a classroom at Science Leadership Academy Middle School is a bookcase with green shelves and a plaque on top, where several students wrote their names in marker.
Having worked on its design, they claimed the bookcase as their own. Visible around the school are other bookcases, some festooned with polka dots, stripes, handprints, and words, all built by creative 5th graders.
SLA Takes Its Learning Approach To the Masses
In a corner of a classroom at Science Leadership Academy Middle School is a bookcase with green shelves and a plaque on top, where several students wrote their names in marker. Having worked on its design, they claimed the bookcase as their own. Visible around the school are other bookcases, some festooned with polka dots, stripes, handprints, and words, all built by creative 5th graders. These personalized bookcases are the result of both a gift and a problem.
At This One-of-a-Kind Boston Public High School, Students Learn Calculus in Spanish
When the Boston Public Schools opened the Margarita Muñiz Academy in 2012, it was a first-of-its kind dual-language high school meant to address issues faced by the city’s growing Hispanic population. At the time, Hispanic students were both the most likely to drop out of the city’s schools and the least likely to enroll in college when compared to black, white and Asian students. They still are, but as the academy enters its sixth full year, its student outcomes are drawing praise from a variety of sources, even while administrators note that steep challenges remain.
An Unprecedented Partnership
Tymeer Washington held a gold marker above his white mug and considered his identity. After a moment, he drew his name in silver and gold next to a large “24.” “It’s where I’m from,” Washington explained. “24th and Lehigh.”
The 18 students in Danina Garcia’s class at the brand new Vaux Big Picture High School will start each school day with these mugs in their 90-minute advisory period, drinking hot chocolate or tea. It is a chance for students and their adviser, who are expected to stay together for all four years, to bond with each other.
‘Eddie Prize’ Winner Kelly Field: Reporting on Native American Students
EWA Radio: Episode 134
Journalist Kelly Field recently won a top honor at EWA’s National Seminar for her compelling series, “From the Reservation to College,” on the education of Native American students. Field’s coverage for The Chronicle of Higher Education — supported by an EWA Reporting Fellowship — follows several students from the Blackfeet Indian reservation in Montana. Their experiences highlight the significant educational challenges facing Native communities in the U.S. today.
A Houston High School’s Transformation
EWA Radio: Episode 129
Laura Isensee of Houston Public Media discusses Furr High School, which recently received a $10 million grant to help it reinvent what, when, and how students learn. The changes are already underway: a veteran principal was lured out of retirement to take the helm; students are able dig into their own areas of interest during regular periods of “Genius Time”; and even the hiring process for teachers and staff has taken some innovative turns. What’s been the response of the school community to these new developments?
Covering Segregation Through Storytelling
Nationally, politicians and others frequently tout Hartford, Connecticut, and its magnet schools as a model of school integration. But in reality, the city has a system of haves and have nots, as Vanessa de la Torre and Matthew Kauffman, reporters at The Hartford Courant, revealed in their 2017 series, “Hartford Schools: More Separate, Still Unequal.”
EWA Announces New ‘Global Lens’ Education Reporting Fellows
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce its third class of EWA Reporting Fellows, under an initiative aimed at supporting enterprising journalism projects.
The latest round of the EWA Reporting Fellowship is focused on examining U.S. education through a global lens. Prior rounds include college and career readiness and success, as well as high school redesign.
FAQs About the 2017 EWA Reporting Fellowship: U.S. Education in Global Context
Applications Due March 27, 2017
What is the EWA Reporting Fellowship?
The EWA Reporting Fellowship provides financial awards to education journalists to undertake special reporting and writing projects.
How many fellowships will be awarded?
EWA expects to award approximately three fellowships in this round of the program.
How much money comes with the fellowship?
EWA will provide awards of up to $8,000 a piece to winning proposals.
EWA Supports Education Journalism With New Fellows
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce its inaugural class of EWA Reporting Fellows, under a new initiative aimed at supporting enterprising journalism projects.
“We were impressed by the high caliber of the proposals, and are thrilled to help advance ambitious reporting in communities across the country, from Baltimore and Detroit to New Orleans,” said Caroline Hendrie, EWA’s executive director. “The response to this new initiative makes clear the strong appetite among media outlets — and individual journalists — for in-depth reporting on education.”
EWA Announces New Education Reporting Fellows
The Education Writers Association is pleased to announce its second class of EWA Reporting Fellows, under an initiative aimed at supporting enterprising journalism projects.
“We were heartened by the quality of the applications and the continued enthusiasm among EWA members for pursuing in-depth reporting projects,” said Caroline Hendrie, EWA’s executive director. “We expect the fellows’ work to advance important conversations about policies and practices shaping America’s schools.”
Chartering a New Course: KIPP’s Katrina Generation Goes to College
EWA Radio: Episode 93
When Hurricane Katrina swept through New Orleans in 2005, much of the city’s infrastructure was washed away — including its public education system. Changes imposed after the storm have produced a system primarily of charter schools which are independently operated and publicly funded — including those run by the KIPP network.
In the new series “Higher Ground” (for NOLA.com/The Times Picayune), reporter Danielle Dreilinger looks at where the city’s KIPP’s graduates wind up after graduation. She talks with EWA public editor Emily Richmond about the project (part of the EWA Reporting Fellowship program), and how the high-achieving charter network is seeking to improve New Orleans’ students chances of postsecondary success.
Broken Promises: The Education of Native Students
EWA Radio: Episode 86
What will it take for the federal government to provide American Indian and Alaskan Native students with the schooling and services they’ve long been promised?